This disclosure relates to enforcing resource restrictions in an environment.
Users may often have associated resource restrictions on a computer device, such as a personal computer or other computing device. Typically these resource restrictions are associated with a user identifier. For example, a parent may limit the availability of applications, such as an e-mail client and web browser, on a home computer for a child by associating resource restrictions with the child's user identifier. When the child logs onto the computer with his or her user identifier, the web browser and e-mail client is not available. Likewise, a workgroup administrator may limit the availability of resources on a business computer for certain employees. For example, a software development company may limit file sharing and for access to particular development tools for employees according to the employees' user profiles.
Restrictions may be circumvented if the restriction is predicated on preventing the generation of a system call for the resource. Thus, if a user determines how to generate the system call for a restricted resource, the user can have access to the resource. For example, a browser application can be restricted for a user by a restriction program that inhibits the generation of menu items, desktop icons and dock icons for launching the browser application. However, if the user clicks on a web address in an HTML enabled document in a word processing program, the word processing program can generate a system call to launch the browser application, thus circumventing the restriction.